


Map to Paradise

by Bleach_ed_Na_tsu



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Fallen Angels, LITERALLY, No Mafia, Non-Mafia AU, Ten Years Later, Tsuna is Not Dame, guardians are angels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-16
Updated: 2018-09-16
Packaged: 2019-07-12 21:44:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16003913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bleach_ed_Na_tsu/pseuds/Bleach_ed_Na_tsu
Summary: Wounded, bleeding, broken, angels keep turning up at Tsuna's door. Their wings injured, and of so many different colours and shapes and sizes. They don't trust him, but he trusts them. He preens their wings and wraps their wounds. He feeds them and gives them a home. When he asks why they don't go home...he doesn't believe that it's because they lost their map. SkyGem Prompt.





	Map to Paradise

**Author's Note:**

> So SkyGem is a BAD influence on me! Look at this, another prompt, and one she knows I can't refuse, because the imagery in my head is just freaking amazing. She also gave me this prompt like 2 years ago or something and I finally have the muse.
> 
> NOTE: This is not meant to offend anyone, but I'm talking about angels, please take it with a pinch of salt. Some of the things discussed are talking about more traditional angels, some I made up. Also, this story isn't meant to answer everything, you will be confused, it's meant to be that way. Please tell me what you think it means though
> 
> Still, enjoy this and thank you for your continued support of me.

 

" _ **Made-up angel language. Not real words most of the time."**_

"Regular speaking."

* * *

He had been living with himself for so long, that Tsuna really didn't remember anyone filling what were now guest rooms. Tsuna couldn't remember the last time he had shared a meal with someone, family or otherwise, and he couldn't remember whether or not he was lonely.

Tsuna could count the wooden boards that made up the peaked roof of his bedroom and what he considered his living space, and he could tell what time of day it was by what angle the sun hit the low coffee table in the middle of the room.

What Tsuna couldn't tell you was what the house smelt like when his mother was making dinner or cookies. He couldn't tell you how long it would take his father to fix the shelf if it was broken. He couldn't tell you what it felt like to have a family meal in the kitchen and argue in the downstairs family room about what TV show to watch that evening.

Tsuna's eyes scrunched closed as he rolled onto his stomach, he opened them when he pulled a pillow into his arms and he gazed across his loft bedroom. He spent all his time up here, that way he didn't need to admit that facing the silence in the four-bedroom home was stifling.

* * *

The next morning, Tsuna was sprinting to work. Because he had allowed himself to wallow in his own self-pity and loneliness he hadn't slept. Which meant that he was late for work. While his boss was a laidback lady of European descent and would never dock his pay for being five minutes late, Tsuna hated to disappoint her.

It had been quite a few years since Tsuna and his university friends had picked up parkour as a means of keeping fit and being able to sleep in the last possible moment. Still, the movements were engrained in Tsuna and having to chase after rowdy animals every day kept him fit.

Which is why Tsuna sprinted through alley-way and over fences to get to work that day.

He was at the alley next to the vet clinic he ran when he almost ran into a blockage. Instead, he grunted and jumped over the scattered boxes that had obviously been poorly stacked. As he vaulted over them he spied a mass of feathers and what looked like blood. Before he could stop though it looked like they disappeared.

Conflicted about whether to be late or check to see if some cat had gotten an unlucky seagull, Tsuna was grabbed by one of the nurses and dragged into the clinic with a panicked babble of explanations. Apparently, a distressed, pregnant bulldog had been brought in and couldn't wait. So as Tsuna ran to get scrubbed he promised that he would check back on his way home. If it was an injured animal he'd see what he could do.

The day rushed by as all others. From routine injections and booster shots, to emergency deliveries and stitches, Tsuna breezed through them all. He was tired, and his feet hurt, but he didn't go back on his promise. He changed back into his slacks and shirt and replaced his rubber shoes with his black running ones before leaving.

"I'll see you on Wednesday, Lucile. Tell Dr. Mochida thanks again from me. I could really use this weekend off."

The young lady, the nurse that Tsuna had taken on for work experience, and later hired when she was done with her residency laughed. She was young and bright, only twenty-two to Tsuna's twenty-six (a young vet to practically have his own clinic). "Of all the vets I know, Dr. Sawada, you deserve the break. Besides, Kensuke said he preferred working here than at the big clinic in the city."

Tsuna hummed as he checked over his back, "Maybe we should extend the offer to him then, eh? I mean we have that spare examination room wasting away."

The young lady suggested that it was a wonderful idea before turning back to the last few patients. She could deal with their needs while she closed up, leaving Tsuna to turn back down the alley.

He was surprised to see the boxes moved, but they weren't stacked neatly yet. They were circling a corner, crooked and unbalanced. Like a hut.

Even more worried –because what if some poor homeless person was hurt? –Tsuna rushed forward. "Excuse me, are you okay?"

There was no sound for a second, and Tsuna's heart pained. He crouched in the dirt –because fuck dirt, he  _knew_  something-someone was hurt –and tried to peer into the dark hole of a shelter.

"Hello?" Tsuna tried again, "Please let me help you."

"-ve me, lone." The voice was high and strained, tired and gritty. As if the person –a boy perhaps –hadn't drunk anything for days.

And that was it. Tsuna didn't want to invade this person's right, but he could hear the hurt. So he pulled a box off the top of the pile. If this boy wanted to be left alone so much he'd put them back and call an ambulance.

When light poured into the shelter, Tsuna's voice caught. The resident gasped in pain and growled –guttural and animalistic, Tsuna had only heard hurt  _animals_  sound like that –but Tsuna felt his knees weaken as he dropped the box in his hands.

There was a young boy in the pile of boxes, he was black-haired and eyes like fresh leaves. He was bloodied at the scalp and clutching at his leg with a vice grip of pain. He was staring at Tsuna uncertainly, cornered and scared.

Tsuna's heart leapt. He wanted to cry because someone hurt this  _child_.

Except there was one other thing that made Tsuna pause even as Tsuna started tearing boxes away so he could help this child. Sitting at the boy's shoulders, shoved into a corner as if they could disappear were feathers. Feathers. Everywhere. They stuck out at weird angles, looked filthy in this light. But they were there.

They were attached to wings.

Huge wings almost twice as wide as the boy was tall.

But Tsuna couldn't look at them for long, the boy pitched forward, growling and flailing. "Leave me, 'lone!"

But he promptly passed out, and Tsuna just bungled the boy up.  _The fucking wings were weird, what if he picked the child up and hurt them_. Before he sprinted home. It was gloomy and he took an empty route.

The boy barely moved, he shifted and groaned, but he sucked up Tsuna's warmth and that was enough to tell Tsuna that this child would forgive him for basically kidnapping him.

* * *

"Tsuna, why are you helping me?" Lambo's voice was hoarse, tired.

Tsuna had managed to get this child home relatively quickly, three nights ago. No one stopped Tsuna, and the boy hadn't woken up either. So being as gentle and non-invasive as possible, Tsuna had gotten started on healing him.

The never-used dining table acted as the surgical table as Tsuna worked, for what seemed like hours to the young man.

The child he had saved was probably not even fourteen yet, he had a black eye and a gash on his forehead that had needed nine stitches. He wore the most obscure wrap-like tunic that reached his mid-thigh that tied around his wings, it was a dark brown colour and had a bright green sash around his waist. He had wraps around his feet, or one foot at least. The pale white strips that made a strange gladiator-like sandal had been shredded to wrap around the –Tsuna certainly hoped it wasn't, but the evidence was compelling –stab wound in the boy's thigh.

That wound had taken a little longer to deal with.

By the time two days had passed, and the boy had woken up, Tsuna had basically sorted out all the wounds. The wings had been difficult, not only were the injuries numerous, but Tsuna wasn't sure whether to treat them like birds wings or not.

So delicate, but heavy and strong, Tsuna had done his best with salve and clamps. He removed the broken-beyond-repair feathers. He had wrapped what he could.

Lambo had been groggy and suspicious when he's woken up, Tsuna had put him in the loft, laid out on what Tsuna called a bed, and most called a mess.

Pillows had gone flying from the pile of futons and mats that acted as Tusna's bed.

Lambo had hissed and cursed, but when he had tried to fly he had almost fainted from the pain. Tsuna had barely caught him when he fell.

Which was where they were now, almost a week after Tsuna had found Lambo. Lambo was sitting on the coffee table in the loft while Tsuna changed his bandages and checked the stitching. Lambo had also explained to Tsuna that his wings were much more resilient than bird's wings. In fact, all the feathers would grow back.

It was impossible for Lambo to be clipped, which made Tsuna sigh in relief. He had worried about grounding the literal angel.

Tsuna paused, hands freezing over the bandages around Lambo's wings. However, he took a breath and continued, unwrapping the spoiled cloth so he could check on the wounds. If Lambo were a real bird Tsuna wouldn't have been able to be so thorough, but somehow it felt like Lambo would suffer more than any bird if his injuries grounded him. "Because you are hurt."

Lambo almost growled, "That isn't an answer. Lotsa you humans are injured out there. Is it because I'm an angel? Do you think you'll get a special pardon for treating me?" Lambo hissed, partly from his building fear and the pain as Tsuna plucked one of his broken feathers out of the wounds. "Cause you won't, you'll get nothing for helping someone like me."

The wince that wracked Tsuna was very visible, but Lambo didn't feel bad. This human was probably just trying to get a one-up for when he went to paradise, like all the others. Still, though his hands kept fixing up Lambo's wings and his legs, and even put a new bandage on the cut on his face. When the strange man –he felt like a sky, which was impossible, only the archangels felt like that,  _never_  a human –was done fixing Lambo he took the boy's narrow shoulders in his hands. Tsuna was knelt in front of Lambo, brown eyes round and warm and begging Lambo to stay and be safe and not force himself even before he uttered a word.

"There are a lot of people who would do this to try and win favour from you, but I am not. I should have helped you sooner, but I was selfish and went to work first. Someone else should have helped you before me." Tsuna admitted, hands soft as he held Lambo. "I am just trying to help. Someone hurt you, and that isn't right. I want to help you get better because I imagine there are people in your home who are searching high and low for you. I know if someone precious to me was lost and hurt I'd want someone to help them."

Lambo was silent, starting at Tsuna with suddenly unnatural-green eyes as the young man packed away his equipment. Then Tsuna stood.

"You're healing well. Since your wings weren't broken you should be healed enough to leave soon." Tsuna sounded sad, Lambo could feel the man practically thrumming with pain at the thought of Lambo leaving so soon. "I'm sure it'll be nice to be home with your family right?"

Tsuna thought that he had made it up when he heard Lambo's next whispers. "I doubt that, Tsuna. I don't think I'll ever be welcomed home again."

* * *

One more week past smoothly, and the was house starting to pick up proofs of Lambo's presence in the home –feathers scattered in Tsuna's pillows and hair; drawings and writings on scraps of paper across the kitchen table, and Tsuna's desk, and the coffee table; a new brand of candy and pop joining Tsuna's other brands in the kitchen.

"Lambo, I'm home." Tsuna sighed as he stepped into his house. He had grown so used to the little one in his house, so needy for Tsuna's attention, that Tsuna had forgotten that once upon a time he would do all he could to forget the emptiness.

The emptiness that seemed suddenly so quiet, Lambo usually answered right away. Lambo usually waited in the living room and pounced as soon as Tsuna stepped inside.

"Lambo!?" Tsuna dropped his bag and toed off his shoes, going into the kitchen to see if he was there.

He wasn't.

Dread and a strange sick taste rose in Tsuna's throat.

Tsuna had meant it when he told the young boy that he should be happy to go home. Earth was really a cruel place, and whoever had hurt Lambo proved that. But still, Tsuna hadn't wanted the boy to leave. He enjoyed his company, he enjoyed cooking for two, he enjoyed listening to the way Lambo complained about TV and how grape candy on earth was better than it was wherever Lambo was from.

Tsuna didn't like how sad and forlorn, and  _broken up_  Lambo looked –like he was missing vital pieces of himself as if he was a part of something so much  _bigger_  and  _whole_  –but Tsuna also felt like Lambo would be okay.

So Tsuna had bit his cheek enough to draw blood and told Lambo his honest truth. He would be healed enough to go home soon. Tsuna hadn't thought the boy would just up and leave, though of course, he had every right to.

Still, Tsuna sprinted around the house to find him. He wasn't in the shower or the bathroom, nor the kitchen or the downstairs study.

Lambo wasn't in the unused guest rooms either. Tsuna should have known that, but he had hoped that maybe Lambo wanted to sleep in an actual bed for once.

So when Tsuna tumbled into the loft and spotted the wings in the window he almost cried out in relief.

He should have known, that from day one, Lambo had preferred Tsuna's massive pile of blankets and futons and pillows to any bed. He had preferred the loft just as much as Tsuna had.

Tsuna finds the small angel curled up on the windowsill on the third floor where he's been staying. His wings were an earthy green, looking something more like leaves than like feathers in this din light. He had his injured leg inside, arms wrapped around it, on the bay windowsill and the other dangled out of it. His eyes were up, watching the storm rolling in with a painful fondness.

Tsuna had to wonder, as he watched the child, what it must have been like to watch a storm from above.

Not speaking, and knowing that Lambo will be able to hear him come in, Tsuna took a seat beside the boy. Lambo leant into Tsuna, wings wincing even as they moved to try and wrap Tsuna up in them. They were too small and patched to do the job properly, but Tsuna hummed in appreciation.

"What are you looking for, Lambo?" Tsuna's hand found Lambo's letting the boy decide if he wanted to hold it or not. His eyes may be ancient, probably decades older than Tsuna's, but he was still a child. Lambo gripped Tsuna's offered hand, threading his fingers through the human's warm ones. "Are you trying to figure out how you'll be able to go home?"

Lambo's eyes blurred with tears, the greens seeming so pale and watery for a moment as he looked to the sky. "I don't think I'll ever be able to go home." He whispered, so broken that Tsuna wrapped the boy up so that he was almost in his lap. "My brother always loved storms like this, he made them and they were always so beautiful….but tonight it's like he's screaming. He's telling me that I can't go home. Not right now."

* * *

Halloween was rolling around, and with it, rain usually followed. However, what Tsuna hadn't expected was the storm that had been roaring almost two weeks ago (and had lasted three days) to return with a vengeance, bringing with it more rain than Tsuna had seen in almost three years.

The clinic was closed for the week, only open for the worst emergencies. So Tsuna took the time to get ready and buy foods and everything else the pair of residents would need for the upcoming winter. Things that couldn't be put off anyway.

Tsuna watched Lambo warily as he shifted from foot to foot in the entrance hall. He had one of Tsuna's old shirts in his hands and wore a pair of boots (with his trousers tucked into them) that Tsuna had bought for him. "Are you sure you're well enough, Lambo? I can go shopping alone and let you rest if you want?"

Lambo's eyes flashed with panic his head shaking vigorously. His entire body seemed to thrum panic as he spoke. "No! I'm fine. Please don't go alone. Please let me go with you."

And then Tsuna's hand was on his head and a smile on his lips. "Hush, Lambo." His voice was a tenor that seemed to resonate in Lambo, so like his brothers still fighting in paradise. "I won't force you to stay. I just want to be sure you're well enough to hide your wings. You've only been here for three weeks and you were so unwell."

But Lambo was already shaking his head and taking a deep breath. He seemed to glow for a moment and his wings opened up so that his feathers were ruffling. Suddenly they were gone. Tsuna went around Lambo's back and thought he couldn't see them he felt the feather that should be there, in fact, if he squinted he could see the outline of the giant wings.

Lambo laughed as he pulled the shirt over his head, it laid flat on his back, as if the wings were not there. "It's an illusion of sorts, Tsuna-nii." He explained. "My wings are still there, they're just hidden from the normal person's view. The shirt passes 'through' them almost, because they are not corporeal on this plane right now. I'm amazed you can see them and feel them, you're amazing as I thought, Tsuna-nii."

Tsuna blushed before handing Lambo his spare rain jacket. It was far too big for the boy, but it would have to do. Lambo zipped it up and tucked his hand into Tsuna's as they left for the shopping district.

* * *

Lambo's backpack was saddled with groceries, as was Tsuna's, but the pair were laughing happily. People who knew who Tsuna was all stopped to talk to them, Lambo had almost immediately cast his eyes down –shoulders hunched, hair hiding his eyes, moving behind Tsuna –when a human approached, keeping silent as Tsuna spoke.

Each time, Tsuna told them that Lambo was his little brother who had been away at school. Everyone was pleasant enough, but Tsuna was quick to move them away, which Lambo appreciated.

Lambo's hand never left Tsuna's hand, though perhaps to the humans he was a little old to be doing so.

They were resting in a covered picnic area at the park because the rain was suddenly brutal and neither of the boys felt like walking in the rain when Lambo suddenly stood and started shaking.

Tsuna felt the percussion of thunder as he spun around to find where Lambo was looking, the park was empty of everyone except Lambo and himself, but there was that sudden heaviness of a storm directly overhead. Tsuna grabbed Lambo and pulled him behind his back, and then with a rumble, a man appeared.

Just appeared as if he had always been there and Tsuna had somehow missed him.

He leant against a tree with his forearm and forehead, shoulders hitched in pain as his wings twitched. One was dragging on the floor behind him useless, and the other was barely ruffled, straining to seem larger than it was. And what gorgeous wings they were. White at the top, the feathers slowly grew less white and more red, starting as just a trim of the crimson, before slowly and by the longest feather, they were completely red and fanning the enormous wings.

The man wore a tattered, sleeveless tunic that reached just barely his mid-thigh. It was a light brown but was covered with dirt and blood. His feet were bare, wrapped –like Lambo's had before –in only white wraps that went between his toes and up to his knee. They too were ripped and covered in filth, but despite this, the man looked nothing less than angelic.

Even with his scowl, laboured breathing, a black eye and the wild look to his every move, the man looked so ethereal and pure that Tsuna felt wrong looking at him too long.

Tsuna stepped forward "Are you okay? Lambo, do you know-?"

Lambo was gone though in an instant. The pair of angels paid no mind to Tsuna for a moment, crashing into each other almost without thought for their injuries. Lambo held the silver-haired man up by the arm-pits sobbing when the man's knees just about gave out. "Brother, oh fuck, brother, speak brother. Brother Hayato, please. What happened?!"

Lambo's voice grew more desperate as he spoke, eyes roaming the blood and tattered bandages haphazardly tied around both wing and body. However, instead of speaking, the man cupped Lambo's face and kissed his forehead.

Almost at once the older man's hands descended onto Lambo's shoulders, and Lambo's hands reached to grip the man's hips. Their foreheads touched, eyes closed and noses together. Tsuna for a moment remembered that Lambo was not a baby, not a human child. He was an angel, and looking at this intimate scene, Tsuna was suddenly aware of just how pure these two looked, even covered in blood and even though the silver man had weapons strapped all the way around his waist and hips.

Of course, the man was injured, and almost as soon as he had tried to assure Lambo that he was fine –and has actually started to turn on Tsuna –he had collapsed.

It was only Tsuna's quick feet and years of watching injured creatures who tried to hide it, that stopped the man –Hayato –from eating the dirt.

With Lambo's help, Tsuna managed to get the man on his back. "Let's get him home, hmm Lambo?" Tsuna grunted, and he was quick to kiss Lambo's forehead when the boy looked like he was going to cry. "Don't worry, little brother. I'll help him. Now hold his wings so they don't drag."

* * *

Hayato woke after five long days. Tsuna only knew his name because Lambo had told him while he helped to clean and wrap his wounds. The boy was uncharacteristically quiet as they tended to the silver-haired angels wounds. Tsuna had been worried that Hayato had suffered some kind of head injury, since he hadn't woken yet, but Lambo assured Tsuna that angels were much hardier.

"Hayato was my mentor, I guess, when we were back  _there_." And Lambo never called it home, or named the place he was form, just said it was  _there_ , with a tone that spoke of disgust, distrust, and agony. "He wasn't always nice, but he was thorough. He was the one…" Lambo paused. "Well, he was the one who got me out before the fighting got too bad."

It was the most Lambo had told him about wherever he had come from. Tsuna had assumed for a long time that Lambo had been hurt by a human, but maybe it had been another Angel. Tsuna touched Lambo's arm, a soft smile on his face. Lambo's eyes were watery, flashing as if they were lightning. "He's here now, Lambo. We'll look after him, and you two can make your decision when you're healed."

Lambo nodded, cleaning up Hayato's leg where an old wound was weeping too much for stitches. Tsuna concentrated on Hayato's wings. "I'm sorry I can't help." Lambo whispered as Tsuna pried broken feathers our of slash wounds and clamped the large wings in places that they were fractured or broken. "I left before they could teach me first aid. We usually start learning later, after we start our element training. The skies-"

"Don't tell this human too much, brat. You'll get us executed instead of banished."

Hayato didn't get to speak much more, while Tsuna froze in shock at the deep gravely voice, Lambo launched himself at the other angel. His sobs sounded angelic and Tsuna felt guilty for thinking so.

Blazing grey eyes rounded on Tsuna, once Hayato had managed to sit up a little and hold the crying child. Tsuna didn't know what to do, how to react to such a heavy, judgemental gaze. But before the man could yell or something else, Lambo looked up. "Don't hurt him, Brother. Tsuna has been good to me. He's cared for me and he's been healing you. He doesn't want the key."

Hayato assessed Tsuna again before he sighed heavily and pulled Lambo close, finally giving into his worry and relief. "Che, whatever. Thanks, human for keeping the kid alive. We wouldn't forgive ourselves if he had been further hurt."

* * *

Things settled after that. Tsuna felt better leaving the house for work now that Lambo wasn't alone, and he trusted that the angels would not push themselves too hard while they were healing. While Hayato was far more injured than Lambo was, the young angel was healing slowly and it worried him.

"I'm home, Hayato, Lambo." Tsuna called. He was exhausted. It had been a hard day and he had to put down one of his oldest customers. It was sad to see the old boy go and Tsuna had struggled to stay professional.

There was no answer, but unlike last time Tsuna did not panic. Instead, he slipped off his shoes, hung up his coat, and threw his bad by the door. He'd do the dishes later, after dinner. As he walked upstairs he checked the guest room. Though Tsuna put Lambo and now Hayato's clothes in the spare room neither angel stayed there. Instead, they liked to stay in the pile of blankets and pillows that Tsuna had in his loft bedroom.

As he walked into the loft, the soft light of the evening lit the light oak floors a beautiful orange. Hayato was sitting against the wall, pillows supporting his back with a torn-up leather book in his lap. He was tapping a pencil against the edge, thinking as he stared at Lambo. Lambo was sitting in the window again, but unlike usual he didn't turn to talk to Tsuna when he walked in. Didn't hug him. Didn't acknowledge him.

Tsuna sat beside the window, his back to the wall. He had seen Lambo as an Angel many many times. He had since stopped being shocked by the stark differences in this ethereal being. Instead, he listened to the sound of the earth and the wind through the leaves that were slowly, and finally, turning colour. It had been an unseasonably warm beginning to the fall in Namimori. He watched as Lambo wings, open and wide in the window, rustled with the light breeze. They were beautiful and truly did looks more like leaves than feathers. If it weren't for the way that they brushed against Tsuna's legs he would think that they were.

" _ **Otharian qaretn, salizer, afectus."**_

Tsuna startled when a voice larger than any being in the room sounded. It was both big and quiet, sounding both physically and mentally. It sounded within Tsuna's heart and head. It made him shiver and something in his belly sparkled and roared to life hearing that ethereal musical language. "Lambo?"

The young angel was turned to Tsuna, his eyes lit electric green seeming to glow even in the light of the room. His wings were open, larger than Tsuna had seen in all the two months that Lambo had been with him. There was an energy around him that made Tsuna's mouth dry.

In the corner of his eye, he could see Hayato stiffen and sit up straighter, a book to the side and eyes focused between Tsuna and Lambo. But Tsuna's gaze met Lambo again. "Lambo, you'll have to repeat that. I can't understand your language yet. You'll have to teach me."

Lambo did not move for a moment, eyes so much more ancient and powerful. Too much for Tsuna to comprehend, and then he blinked and he was looking at Tsuna with his soft green eyes again. "I said, Hudson loved you. He was glad you were there in his last moments." Tsuna wasn't sure what to think. He didn't know how Lambo knew about Hudson, the dog he had put down today, or his feelings about him. It was overwhelming, it was terrifying, it was humbling. "He is with the creator now, and he is safe. He was good and he is here."

Lambo seemed to come into himself again, he held his arms out to Tsuna and the young man complied, opening his arms and letting the young angel fold onto his lap, his wings lazily surrounding them but still letting Tsuna see out the window and meet eyes with Hayato.

"Sorry to scare you, Tsuna. I needed to tell you Hudson was so happy, and you were so sad. I could taste it and you can't be sad, you're our…" He trailed off then, softly snoring in Tsuna's lap, exhausted by whatever had just happened.

Needing answers Tsuna looked up at Hayato. The man had the book in his lap again, and the pencil taping the page. A look of deep contemplation was on his brow, lighting his eyes a kaleidoscope of colours. He looked on the brink of whatever haze Lambo had just been in.

"Is Lambo okay?"

"Che, we angels are more than you Humans, he is fine." The man scoffed, pointing out yet again that humans like Tsuna were inferior to Angels. However, his expression got sombre. "He is young, compared to us and so he does not slip into Enochian very often. It wears on him, he must have cared deeply about your suffering to commune to you." There was more Hayato wasn't saying about the language of angels, the way he looked at Tsuna now, critically. "Who was Hudson?" Hayato finally asked instead.

Tsuna closed his eyes, running steady fingers through Lambo's dark black hair. He couldn't help but gaze fondly at the young boy in his lap. "Hudson was a 16 year old golden retriever. I grew up with him on this street, back when I was a child and my parents were still alive. He was the reason I became a vet, he stopped my fear and he greeted me every morning. He was much older than most of his breed, but he was kind. I had to put him down today." He explained, tears burning his eyes. "He had cancer and his organs were failing. It was the kindest thing to do." Tsuna drifted off in voice, his mind thinking of the lovely dog who would take treats so gently from his hand. He thought about the little lick he gave as he went to sleep. It hurt, but to hear Angels talk of him being happy soothed the part of his soul that burned.

"Lambo was right, he was happy. He loved you, you made the V.E.T bearable. Friendly. Safe. That is what he felt when he met the creator." Hayato spoke with certainty.

"How can you be sure, how do you know?"

Hayato smiled then, softly, like he understood the ways of humans better than Tsuna did. "We feel these things, human. So very vividly here on earth. I have never felt these things before, and yet…" He took a breath. "We have a connection, Lambo, the others, me. It connects us and binds us. It's like a mental connection, so I saw what he saw, and he was not wrong. The kid is just more sensitive to you and these things as one so young." Hayato went back to his book, writing and drawing softly. "And he loves you."

They lapsed into quiet comfort for the rest of the night. Hayato sketching in his little book, gazing and where Tsuna held Lambo in his lap. Eventually, the three settled down in the piles of pillows and blankets and feathers and bodies. Tsuna was never one to do such a thing, share a bed with another. He had never shared with friends, not his mother or father. But something about these angels made it feel right, made it feel like anything else would be sacrilegious. And since neither boy asked Tsuna to leave he wasn't going to argue.

Though, even as Tsuna fell asleep to the sounds of Hayato's sketches and Lambo's breathing, the fire in his belly didn't leave. It had started when Lambo had spoken to him in the language of angels and had not died down since. It made Tsuna feel capable, and worthy of the angel's presence.

* * *

The rains were pounding the pavements when Tsuna ran home and the next angel appeared.

He was rounding the corner of the clinic and had sprinted into the doors when a breeze of ice brushed his neck. Without turning, Tsuna peaked over his shoulder to find a tall, black haired man with a smile of silver and a blade as long as Tsuna's torso pressed to Tsuna's neck. The man had blue eyes, flashing with fire.

"Will you let me help you." Tsuna replied, shocking the man into moving his blade. It nicked Tsuna's neck so sharp it wasn't even painful. "Once I help you I can have Hayato and Lambo come and get you."

Because the man was bleeding from his nose, and from his forehead. There were slashes and burns all over his torso, obliterating the tunics and blue sashes he wore. He had one wing on the ground and what looked like a broken wing missing half the feathers; as if they'd been seared off.

The man's voice warbled when he spoke, and Tsuna picked up on the Enochian slipping into the words. " _ **What have saliza sft-done with Hay-ulaed and Lamb-arinet? Why do you feel like them?!"**_  The man slipped again, his blade dropping to the floor and his feel shuffling to keep him standing. Tsuna could feel the sting on his neck as blood dripped slowly down his collar. But he was a vet first and so he stepped forward and caught the man as he slumped forward.

Regardless of his own injury, Tsuna flipped the lights of the exam room on and started treating the angel for shock and burns. The cuts were mostly healed, sealed shut with some strange paste and bandaged or burnt shut. For now, Tsuna worked to get the man stable, watching as his eyelids flickered around and his arms flopped. He was never happier that he had given the nurses the morning off today or that he hadn't planned to open until 9. He had a few hours to sort this man out and get Hayato and Lambo over before customers would wonder where he was.

* * *

The angel with the icy eyes didn't wake at all while Tsuna was scraping burns and wrapping the flesh part of what was left of his wing. It made him sick to see the man like this. Like he was plucked. Still, he steeled his stomach, put salve, stitches, and bandages where needed. It was just when he finally cleaned the blood and wrappers away that he finally picked up the phone.

He tried to keep the voice even as he spoke to Hayato who had picked up his house phone. "I think your friend is here, at the clinic. He's not looking good, but I got him stab-" The phone went dead and in a moment Hayato and Lambo were standing next to Tsuna, wings bristled and pupils dilated. Tsuna smiled shakily and tried to point them to the room the injured angel was in. But Hayato stopped him.

"Tsuna, why is there blood on you?" Hayato asked, using his long fingers to tilt Tsuna's chin around, zeroing in on the two neat cuts that were probably just drying now.

"Ah, your friend. He was a bit tense when he got here."

"If he hurt you, why do you think he is a friend?" Lambo exclaimed, rushing to press a hand to Tsuna's throat, as if worried he'd bleed out. Something about having Tsuna's blood on his hand discomforted Lambo, and he was quick to grab a bandage for the man he was coming to love like family.

"He said your names, I think?" Tsuna replied, kissing Lambo's forehead without thinking in thanks. Tsuna moved on from it without acknowledging it, but the Angels felt warmth stir around them, even as the shocked human kept talked. "Or I think so? He was speaking your language. But it sounded like your names. Regardless come here, he's hurt and you should take him home to rest."

* * *

Turns out, the angel was their friend, Takeshi, who was very humbled once he met Tsuna after he woke. He apologized profusely, and each time he saw Tsuna's wound grew quiet. Apparently, angel weapons were not meant to touch humans unless the intent was to kill, for they leave near unsealing injuries. It was why Tsuna, even two weeks later was wearing bandages.

"Takeshi, this is past. You were under a lot of stress and you were missing your friends. I would be more surprised if you weren't a little panicked." Tsuna smiled as he put food down on the table.

"Maa maa, it's a serious thing, Tsuna. Your neck might never heal. You could die from an infection because I was too weak to keep my blade level. The archangels taught us not to be weak with our weapons. If I was still there they'd-"

"We're not there anymore!" Lambo yelled suddenly, frantic at the suggestion of what Tsuna could only imagine was punishment.

Takeshi and Hayato tensed, and Tsuna touched Lambo's head, calming the boy easily. "Exactly, you are not going to be punished here for being injured. You are here, and healthy now that is what matters." With that Tsuna smiled again. "besides, I'm almost healed, look."

Tsuna pulled the bandages back to show a thick red welt, around it, were intricate vein-like designs – a consequence of angel steel apparently -they looked like scars rather than tattoos, but otherwise it was healed.

The angels all froze for a moment, musical energy and words far beyond their language burning through their shared mind. Something pulling on them, making them curious and protective. But they didn't know what it meant. They had been sent to earth as a punishment, because they were not normal, because the angels found them dirty, and yet here was this human. This human that seemed more. This human that they would have to leave.

"Shall we eat?" Tsuna asked, completely unaware of the angels' turmoil. And the angels agreed, wanting to move from these thoughts.

* * *

A week later, and almost 6 months since Lambo had appeared, Takeshi and Lambo are in the backyard stretching and mock fighting. While Tsuna, as a medical professional had advised against it, all three angels in his presence had said it was fine.

Still, looking at the ragged left wing that Takeshi was sporting hurt Tsuna's heart. It was starting to fill out again with feathers that looked like flowing water as they moved, but it still looked damaged, and the feathers on his damaged wing were coming in darker.

"He is fine, Tsuna." Hayato explained softly, he was sitting next to Tsuna on the porch bench overlooking the back yard. He was facing Tsuna, with his feet on Tsuna's lap. His ever-present book in his lap. Tsuna was drinking some tea. It was cold now, January had brought snow and winds - icy and unforgiving. But, being next to an angel, Tsuna didn't feel the cold, they gave of a warm, comfortable heat that could melt snow if they sat in it.

"What's that book, Hayato?"

The sketching paused before Hayato sighed, almost fondly as if he had been expecting Tsuna to ask much earlier. "This is just a sketchbook, but I put all my thoughts here. It also used to have our map."

Even as Tsuna asked he knew he was pushing it. In the six months, he had had angels living with him, they had divulged very little about their past, or the place they lived before. "Your map home?"

"Yeah, I'm trying to make a new one but…"

"But you have more friends, right?" Tsuna replied, knowing where it was going. "Why else would you still be here, I'm sure wherever you're from is nicer. Kinder, holier. And I'm sure you have better things to do than hang out with some lowly human." He replied. Tsuna looked at Takeshi and Lambo wistfully, knowing that they could hear this and were listening in the space they all shared in their minds. "Are you sure they're…alive?"

He hated to ask it, to see the giant flinch that ripped the winged creatures, but he had to ask, to make sure they were being realistic. "Because their element is within us still."

* * *

Tsuna was chasing Lambo around the yard, the other angels laughing as the younger child lifted himself off the ground when Tsuna got close. It was fun, and the fire in Tsuna's gut that had been getting stronger and stronger flashed for a moment when Tsuna jumped. The shock in Lambo's squeal didn't last long though, because something hard was pressed into Tsuna's guts and he was shoved into the ground by something lithe and small a moment later.

For a second, Tsuna thought he had infuriated an angel and they were attacking, but his inherent trust in the three occupants of the home had him looking up into purple eyes. The female angel was beautiful, flowing purple hair, and a tight tunic accented with armour that the others did not have. Her face was twisted into a scowl, and Tsuna could feel the points of a trident pressing into his gut. He realized quickly he couldn't breathe even as blood dripped off the girl's forehead.

He could hear the echoing, terrifying angel language rolling off the girls tongue, even as the other angels tried to calm her down. They didn't touch her, mostly because there was suddenly trees and roots growing around Tsuna and the woman.

Tsuna's vision was spotting, the breath driven from him. He isn't sure whether or not he was hearing correctly, but the fire in his gut travelled to his chest and it felt like it gathered at his eyes. His hearing flickered, between Enochian and his own language.

" _ **egol-are you?!"**_

" _ **Shin-ome! Chrome! Arterre!"**_

" _ **Ora-suna is a friend! Archalone!"**_

" _ **Tsuna's a friend, leave him alone, we're safe! Homretele.**_

But Tsuna's vision finally faded after a final rush of fire. Everything was silent.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"- happened, Chrome?"

"-like you, to attack-"

Voices started to filter into Tsuna's notice, but they were jumbled, muffled.

"It's been a long journey. I'm sor-"

"-njured? You're wings?"

"-o, Mukuro got me out. He's safe for now."

Tsuna groaned as the voices came more into focus, trying to roll over towards the warmth at his side. Large, warm hands ran through his hair, and he recognized the heavy earthy scent. "Hayato? What happened?"

Takeshi moved over, smelling like wet concrete, and helped Tsuna sit up. They were in the loft, and everyone was gathered on the futons and pillows. The woman was before them, sitting with Lambo, and holding his hands. She was patched up, dressed in some of Lambo's clothes. Her hair was tied back, and her wings tucked like a dog's ears when they had done something wrong. She was wearing an eyepatch.

"Is your eye okay? I can look." Were Tsuna's first words, and Hayato could only scoff and Takeshi laugh. The girl just blinked, uncertainly, looking to Lambo for answers.

"I am fine, Tsuna." The woman answered, feeding from the minds of her brothers, comforted in this human's presence. "I am Chrome. My brothers have explained to me what happened. I am sorry for attacking you…. after finally finding them…well, I thought you were an archangel attacking. I couldn't have st-."

Tsuna leant forward and gripped the angel's hand. In this light, he could see the beautiful iridescent of her feathers and hair. Like a crow's wings, so beautiful. "Hello Chrome. I fully expect you to want to protect your family, it is water under the bridge. Please feel welcome here, and if you need a room I can give it. But you're equally able to join us here tonight."

Feeling the thrumming warmth from her brothers, and the pull to Tsuna that had made her mistake him for an archangel, she threw herself at Tsuna, aiming for her brothers but needing some contact. After so long, after all the blood and fighting. After everything, she needed her brothers, and if they loved Tsuna she would too, she would trust him now.

Lambo soon joined the pile and they slept there that night, warm, and content.

* * *

"Thank you for your help, Chrome." Tsuna replied as Chrome swept the floors and cleaned the counters in the clinic. Chrome was the least injured of all her brothers, and though Hayato and Lambo were fully healed now, Takeshi was not. Chrome had insisted on joining Tsuna at work, having been the one to injure him.

Apparently, she had almost broken a rib and had left sizeable bruises around his throat. While his scrubs didn't cover those, his turtle neck did. It was cold still and so he had an excuse. Chrome had also felt guilty about the injuries and insisted on helping in the clinic.

"It's okay, Tsuna. I've enjoyed seeing the creator's creatures. We only see them in passing in the palace." Chrome had fewer hesitations about sharing small anecdotes with Tsuna, but he never pushed it. He enjoyed hearing them but would never assume he was worthy of them. These were angels after all.

Chrome has assimilated into the clinic easily. While Dr. Kensuke Mochida had been suspicious at first -Tsuna never sprung anything on him after he invited him to stay at the clinic -Kensuke also trusted Tsuna implicitly, and had little difficulty allowing Chrome in. She was hard working and had a strong knowledge of animals, or else, her angelic presence seemed to calm them in all procedures.

With Chrome it had been an easy day.

It was while they were walking home that things were a bit strange. They were walking when suddenly, in the rustling of leaves, Takeshi, Hayato, and Lambo appeared, looking around frantically until they spotted Tsuna and Chrome.

They appeared, hands touching where bare skin was, and a buzz of energy Tsuna wasn't familiar with, it felt like the warmth in his gut, growing with each day, but different. "We couldn't feel you anymore, we thought-" Lambo's eyes widened.

"That means Ryohei's here somewhere." Takeshi and Hayato said together. Then their eyes met the sky and there, barely floating was a large man with white hair and wings the colour of a pale sunrise. Yellowed edges and warm tips. He was wearing the same kin fog garb as his brothers and sister, except he is wearing a wallow sash around his forehead to mark his colours. The man seemed to dip in the air and plummet to the ground about ten feet in front of the group.

He was in rough shape. His leg was obviously broke in multiple places and the way his arm and wings were bent they were broken too. Tsuna didn't hesitate, he was quick to start working on the angel, aware of how pleasant the weather was, even in the late evening. Spring was approaching quickly and so would the people if they stayed too long.

"I can't help him here; can you carry him home?" Tsuna asked, but before he finished, the man was up in Hayato and Takeshi's arms, and Lambo and Chrome were following the group quickly as Tsuna collected the bag he dropped and ran after them.

* * *

Ryohei woke up before 24 hrs. were even up. He was laughing, punching Tsuna's arm, and happy within a couple hours of waking up, and Tsuna could tell that that alone relieved much of the other angels' tension.

"You're a pretty EXTREME guy, Tsuna! Taking in all these angels." His eyes grew serious. "Not many humans would be able to handle this. Are you sure you're not hiding something?"

Tsuna wasn't sure what to think, especially when all the other angels went silent too. Even Lambo who had been playing a video game with Takeshi. "I'm nothing special. I just can't see you all hurt. You deserve better than earth. We humans aren't like you. I just…" and he looked to Lambo. "I couldn't leave Lambo hurt, Angel or not. And when you all started turning up I wasn't about to send you on your way hurt too."

Ryohei watched him with a critical eye, seeming for a moment as if he didn't believe Tsuna. Tsuna just stared right back, letting his feelings surface. Thinking of finding Lambo, of healing Hayato and Takeshi, of working with Chrome. All the feelings were genuine. He wanted to protect them, from whatever had harmed them. It was an intense, overwhelming feeling, especially for strangers, strange non-humans in fact. But it was true. Ever since the fire started in his gut, and sparkled when he played with Lambo, or cooked with Takeshi, or sat on the porch with Hayato. It was there and it burned and it drove him.

"I want to give you a home, while you're here on earth."

And suddenly all the seriousness was gone because Ryohei threw his weight on Tsuna and ruffled his hair roughly, he laughed and pulled Tsuna close sharing his blazing heat. Somehow, they all fit on the futons, even now with Ryohei's bulk. His words filled the room and made a purring kind of energy fill each person's heart.

"And that's why you're incredible." Ryohei laughed, "What an EXTREME home we've found."

* * *

Tsuna woke up alone. It was early, well before 5am and the sky was still dark. He groped around the area trying to find the others. He had grown so used to other bodies in his space, other warmth and laughter, it was weird to wake up alone again. When it finally hit him that no one was there he sat straight up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. "Hayato?" he called, usually the first awake every morning. There was no answer, and even the smell of coffee that Hayato had become fond of was missing.

Tsuna leant over and flung the windows open, eyes roaming the backyard, hoping his angels were there. "Ryohei!?"

His heart was starting to pound as he rolled off the bed and grabbed a pair of jeans and a plain button up. It was finally warming up but he wasn't really worried about that. He ran to the guest room. Hoping maybe everyone was getting changed, they weren't and their clothes were gone.

Tsuna was out the door before he thought. The angels  _couldn't_  be gone. They would have said something, Tsuna was absolutely sure of that. But they weren't here, they weren't home. Tsuna sprinted around town, trying to figure out where they could be. Ryohei was only just walking normally again, he shouldn't be going out for long walks, and none of the angels should really be flying on such a beautiful spring day.

It was still dark when Tsuna skidded into the park, somewhere that all the angels had found fascinating, and where Tsuna had introduced Takeshi to baseball. Something was pulling him here.

It was empty, of course, but something was here. Or someone. Tsuna was terrified, he was starting to learn that there was more to the angels being with him than just having lost their way home. Something about them, about the fact that other angels had hurt them, was telling Tsuna that there was an enemy out there. But he couldn't figure out who, or what.

He wanted to  _protect_  them. His gut burned with the idea that he couldn't.

"Kufufufu, this is the pathetic creature we have fallen fore. Pathetic, we were great once."

Spinning around, Tsuna was greeted with an ethereal, terrifying visage. A tall, emaciated angel floated before him, large purple wings arching over him. His body was covered with a black, wrapping tunic and long sashes of indigo draped across his body and dangling below his feet. His feet were bare, unlike all of the other angels Tsuna had met.

"Where is everyone, what have you done with them?!" Tsuna yelled, uncertainty and anger boiling in his belly. This angel was different, dangerous. He didn't appear as hurt or trusting as the others, and his heterochromatic eyes look at Tsuna like he was unworthy. Not like Hayato that just saw Tsuna as the human he was, but instead as if Tsuna were vermin and the cause of all their pain.

"I have kept them safe. Away from you, away from everyone else. And I think now it's time for you to forget them."

"I will never!" Tsuna yelled, feeling fuller than ever before. Feeling the heat, and fire, and something otherworldly and bigger than himself building him up. If he could see himself he'd see his eyes bleed orange and flickers of fire circling his feet. But the angel just scowled and appeared before Tsuna, a hand on his neck.

"You will, if I can help it."

And the world faded to black.

* * *

Tsuna woke up alone, with the warm morning sun just hitting his bare stomach. He sat up, blankets pooled at his thighs. The sky was clear, a warm spring day.

Something felt wrong. But, then again, his house had been empty since he started college and his parents died. So perhaps it was that.

He got ready, dressing and drinking coffee he didn't remember buying, but must have since he lived alone.

As he left, Tsuna called out. "I'll be home soon." And couldn't ignore the bitterness of the silence or of walking out alone. He hadn't heard a voice for years, he thought. Nor had he ever walked to work with someone. Either way, he was running late and so, picking up the pace he vaulted his way towards the clinic, not quite able to ignore the warmth that pooled in his gut.

It made his stumble and he fell into an alleyway when the heat bursts. For a second Tsuna was certain his appendix had exploded, but the pain didn't get worse when he pressed his stomach. His eyes roved over the corner, where the alleyway ended at a chain-link fence. Something about the rotten boxes and blankets sitting there made his gut twist.

As if he had met some-

"Boss, you okay? Did you fall from the roof again?" Lucile walked around the corner and dragged Tsuna's mind away. He laughed and admitted it before following her.

The clinic was it's usual rush, but his gut burned as he cleaned counters and swept the floors. Something was missing, something, someone.

His head pounded as his nurses, and even Kensuke left, and he sat in his office with his head in his hands.

" _Tsuna! Wake-up! What's wrong with him, Hayato!?"_

Tsuna's head snapped up, looking around for the voice, the voice he knew! L- it was a kid, a kid so curious and sarcastic and beautiful.

Tsuna stood, looking around because the voices were there. More of them, worried, loud.

" _Hey, an EXTREME guy like you shouldn't sleep so long."_

He took off running, not worrying about if the clinic was locked, not worrying about the rain, or thunder rumbling in the distance. Just trying to find those voices. The angels, his angels. They weren't there.. That purple angel! He must have done something.

Tsuna ended up in the park again. Panting this time, wheeling around like a mad man, trying to find the angel. He had to be here somewhere.

"I want them back!" Tsuna yelled to the emptiness. "Where are they?"

" _ **But they hurt you. Almost killed you."**_  The language was too big for Tsuna's brain, but he was understanding it. Understanding something inherent to a being's soul. You couldn't lie in this language.

"They were hurt, scared. Not human, of course, they did! It's forgiven, not important!" Tsuna defended, spinning around to follow the voice that was here and there and fucking everywhere! He felt the burning, the fire, the things that the angels had whispered about recently. He didn't know what it was but he knew that it was important.

" _ **You'll just leave them. You humans are all the same. Lazy. Privileged. Greedy."**_ Mukuro explained, his voice bitter and tired. Tsuna wondered if he really was hurt.  _ **"When you find out that we are selfish, and that we won't give you anything for your time, you'll leave. You'll abandon us ALL."**_

Fire now coiled at Tsuna's feet, real and bright, and he could feel his eyes glowing. Furious that someone would assume such things about him without knowing him, without giving him a chance. "I won't leave them! I will _ **always be hopmetot them!"**_

"Kufufufu, I can see that. I apologize for needing to be sure. My name is Mukuro, and I will see you at home soon."

* * *

Tsuna woke up, again, a soul deep exhaustion coating his being. But as he opened his eyes he was greeted by an indescribable scene. All the angels were around him, wings open, eyes glowing but not with their internal fire, but with tears.

Lambo dropped onto Tsuna from between Ryohei and Chrome's shoulders, crying as he gripped onto Tsuna tightly. "Why weren't you waking up!? You looked like you were having a nightmare."

Tsuna smiled, holding Lambo close and meeting the other angels' eyes, reassuring them that he was here and he was fine. They all touched him, fingers and wings and eyes, just reassuring themselves that he hadn't been lost.

"It was Mukuro." And the angels looked uncertain, "I think he was testing me, I think?" Then a shiver ran down Tsuna's back and he looked to the window. "Is that what it was, Mukuro?"

The angel waltzed into the room through the window, taking a seat at the edge of the futon platform. The other angels, and Tsuna shifted to watch him better, even as Chrome went close and touched her forehead to Mukuro's in greeting.

"It was, but I saw what I wanted. It's a wonder the archangels don't know about you, and judged our fate so quickly."

"Mukuro." Hayato growled, paranoid about those in paradise and their punishments.

"They can't hear us anymore, or I suppose they don't care. If we want to tell this boy everything, we can. Nothing is stopping us."

"We have time for that," Tsuna yawned. "why don't we start with breakfast."

* * *

Mukuro was terrifying in that intense way that all the angels seemed more to be. They were larger than life, as if there was more to them. But he trusted Tsuna, he trusted Tsuna implicitly and Tsuna knew that trust came with an ultimatum. If Tsuna ever betrayed them, he would be killed, and not just death but an angel's retribution would fall upon him.

Tsuna didn't take it lightly, and the fire burned happily. "Teach me how to keep your trust." He asked one morning, as he and Mukuro were placing breakfast on the table. Everyone froze, and Ryohei frowned.

"You don't need to prove anything, Tsuna. Mukuro's just an EXTRME guy!"

"No. He's right. I need to prove to you I'm here, I'm protecting you. Besides, all this weird fire can't just be for nothing right? If I have this weird power, I want to manage it. For all of you."

His smile was soft, but that music rose behind him and the angels knew, right then, that they were blessed to be cast out of paradise. Because they'd never have their sky, their arch angel, but they'd have Tsuna. And if he could fight, then they could stay.

* * *

Mukuro did not pull punches, as soon as Tsuna agreed to training it was full tilt from there. Of course, the other angels did not take it lying down either. Something about Tsuna's answer invigorated them. Tsuna trained beside Lambo, both learning together. They trained every day, between Tsuna's job, but in return, many of the angels took up the house chores.

Mukuro and Takeshi enjoyed cooking, and Chrome and Lambo enjoyed tending to the garden and home. Hayato did a lot of the maintenance with Ryohei, though the latter also helped with yard work. Somehow, the gardens prospered and much of their fresh produce was from their own garden within a week of Chrome and Lambo taking care of it. But Tsuna didn't question it too much. There weren't many days that Tsuna wasn't on his back panting in the back yard, but there weren't many days that Tsuna felt sad or lonely either.

However, it was the day that Tsuna consciously pulled the fire in his gut, into his hands that the world seemed to turn on it's axis. Mukuro, Takeshi, and Tsuna were dancing around each other in the garden, Takeshi's sword slipped to the dull side, but Mukuro not giving an inch. They were twirling and jumping, and flying and ducking.

Frustrated, and determined, Tsuna had felt the fire bust as both angels cornered him, and without thinking, working on instinct, Tsuna just thrust his hands down and flew. He ended up sprawled on the floor, staring at his hands behind Takeshi and Mukuro. But all the angels were looking at him.

"Aren't those…isn't that sky element?"

"I thought only the archangels possessed the element."

"He really is supposed to be our last piece."

From there the angels were buzzed. They flitted around in fast zipping movements. Their voices waved between their own language and Tsuna's. But the fighting got more serious. Tsuna pushed and pushed and pushed this…sky element…until he could make it dance along his body without it touching his skin.

By the time the meteor that was Kyouya touched the ground, Tsuna could walk around the house blindfolded and backwards using just his sky element to guide him.

* * *

The day their last member of the family would appear, the angels were jittery. They kept looking to the sky, looking at each other, and Tsuna could  _feel_  their mental connection bend and wave around him. For a while, he had to skirt around their wings -open and rustling with anxiety, and they dropped into Echonian more often than not. The flames in Tsuna's chest translated some but he didn't need the translation when, as one, the angels' eyes flickered to the backyard and as one they said " _ **He is here."**_

Like a meteorite, flames the colour of violet wrapped around an angel. He hit the ground hard, a crashing, crackling thump that rattled the house. Everyone piled out, watching as the creature stood. Everyone gasped, including Tsuna.

"Kyouya…" Lambo and Chrome's voices were gentle and broken.

Kyouya stood on an obviously broken leg, but what was worse was the missing left arm, and missing half of his right wing. He staggered, but even as Ryohei motioned to help him, the angel let out a guttural growl. "Only the human will come, and he will prove to me that he is strong,"

"Kyouya, be reasonable! You're hurt, you just escaped the creator, you can wait to fight Tsuna!" Hayato growled lowly, also stepping forward.

"Kami korosu!" Kyouya spat instead, tendrils of violet fog whipping at the two approaching angels. "If he can fight me, we're safe to stay. What say you  _ **human**_ **? Care to prove your point?"**

The others moved to argue, but something about this man's desperation, the way his body was tensed, and his eyes glowing, resonated with Tsuna, with the fire in his cut. So, while calling the fire to his hands, and letting his eyes bleed orange, Tsuna stepped in front of Kyouya. "I'll show you that I can protect them, Kyouya, and that I can protect you too."

* * *

The fight lasted for a solid hour. Kyouya did not hesitate, he flew forward with a speed that seemed to ignore his terrible injures, in his hand, a tonfa edged with a blade and a chain. Tsuna barely dodged, but the blade glided across his thigh, slicing the jeans he wore with ease.

Using his hands, Tsuna flipped over, and away, kicking Kyouya in the chest when he came too close. While seeing the grimace on the man's face hurt him, he knew this was more than a fight with a strange angel. This was something Kyouya needed.

They flipped and flew, and punched and sliced at each other, Tsuna managed to scorch Kyouya's tunics, and Kyouya grappled Tsuna's arm with his chain. They were both bleeding and bruised, panting, and Kyouya's vision grew spotty with pain. But he pushed and pushed and pushed on.

Tsuna pinned Kyouya to the ground, but soon found Kyouya's knee in his gut, gritting his teeth he pulled Kyouya up, using one hand to hold him to his chest, and the other to push them. Higher and higher, and higher in to the sky. Kyouya struggled, punching Tsuna with his one good arm even as Tsuna wrapped his legs around Kyouya's torso to freeze the man

When they were finally past the cloud, Tsuna stopped, holding Kyouya tight, but using the flames in his feet to hover them, "I will protect them, and you will too. But you need to rest for now."

Kyouya didn't take that lying down, kicking away from Tsuna he ponched the man in the face. "Don't  _ **presume you know anything, human."**_ Growling, Tsuna grabbed Kyouya by his shoulders and dropped. Down and down and down, he felt the earth coming closer. The angels had shown this this move, a domination move, one that looked like it hurt but did not. Tsuna wrapped them with flames, as they hit the ground, shaking the earth and the trees on Tsuna's property.

"I am home. I will protect them all. And you will train me to make sure that I do. Stop fighting it!"

Kyouya wouldn't have been able to even if he wanted to, wrapped in the flames of a human who felt more like an angel, Kyouya was weak. They had been cast out of paradise because their destined sky element was not an angel. They had been tortured, and questioned, and cast from paradise forever. To finally see all his brothers and sister, to see their sky, and know he was strong and willing to get stronger, well, Kyouya bowed easily and succumbed to his injuries.

* * *

It was amazing, how the angel's healed. After the fight, Tsuna patched Kyouya up, they ate, they talked, and finally, they all slept in a pile in Tsuna's loft, as if they had been family for years. Within six months, everyone was healed, even Kyouya's wings and arm grew back. But, Tsuna was worried. It had been a full year and a half since Lambo arrived and despite being all healed, the angels were still in his home. They were working now, getting hobbies, playing games, making Tsuna's lonely house into a home. More so than it had ever been.

"Did you finish your map, Hayato?" Tsuna asked nervously, scared to hear the answer.

Hayato froze, he was sketching Tsuna, but imaging him with wings. "No, it seems lost really." Hayato finally answered, reluctantly. After everything they had, all the injuries, the ridicule, the terror in their hearts. They all hoped to stay here, now, with the very reason they were cast from paradise. But if Tsuna didn't want them, they wouldn't stay, they wouldn't burden their reason for life.

"Do you want help?" Tsuna asked nervously, scared for them to say yes, overwhelmed if they say no.

"I don't think we're in a rush, Tsuna." Takeshi finally cut in, not liking the tension, the unknowns. "You're pretty cool."

Tsuna nodded a little uncertainly, but the angels weren't complaining, not even Kyouya, whose light eyes had immediately found Tsuna's when he spoke.

* * *

Tsuna asked a few times after that, when another year passed, and when two passed. But after that he stopped. He stopped because he realised quite suddenly while sparring with Kyouya, why the angels had not left. After so long everything made sense. Why they were cast from paradise, why he could call forth the same fire that the angels could, and why the angels needed no map home.

Tsuna did not tell them these things, all things would come out in the end. But he was sure that the angels knew, because suddenly all tension left, and their lives moved on in so many ways.

* * *

Tsuna sat at the breakfast bar with a smile, sipping the coffee that Mukuro had made for him. He could see Kyouya teaching Lambo to meditate though the window to the backyard, and there was the soft singing of Chrome on the rooftop to fill the air. Ryohei and Takeshi were cooking breakfast with laughter on their lips, and Hayato was beside Tsuna, waiting for food, and drawing in that battered sketchbook that he had brought from wherever he had come from.

Tsuna sighed contently, a deep, lung-filling sigh, and he didn't notice the way that the Angels around him seem to breathe deeply when he did.

"It's sure nice to be home." Tsuna said, his voice quiet. He was half speaking to himself, half speaking to those around him.

The Angels couldn't help but agree, the single thought across their ethereal mind-link was a unanimous one.  _"We'll never need a map to paradise ever again."_

* * *

**And there you so. This was a bit strange for me to write, it was intense and sad. But it was also fun. I hope you enjoyed it.**

**Thank you all, love you bunches.**

**~~Bleach-ed-Na-tsu :3**


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